Expansion in Warner Center Plans : Development: A proposal calls for $1.3 billion for traffic improvements to handle growth. Councilwoman Picus has misgivings.

Commercial development at Warner Center in Woodland Hills could be nearly doubled if $1.3 billion is spent on traffic improvements, including six-lane elevated streets, city planners said Tuesday.

The recommendations may set up a clash with Councilwoman Joy Picus, who represents the Warner Center area and has misgivings about further large-scale development there.

In a blueprint for Warner Center’s next 20 years made public this week, the city Planning Department backed construction of 11.8 million square feet of additional commercial-retail space, on the condition that expensive steps are taken to handle the added traffic.

In May, Picus unveiled an interim growth control measure for Warner Center that she said was designed to “send a message” to developers that the amount of development permitted by the final Warner Center specific plan--which must be approved by the council--”may be substantially below what has been looked at before.”

Since 1987, two Picus-appointed citizen planning panels have recommended that about 26 million square feet of commercial development be allowed in Warner Center, an increase of 11 million square feet. The specific plan released by the Planning Department this week also proposes that level of development.

The current 14 million square feet of commercial space in Warner Center, spread over 1,100 acres, already surpasses the 10 million to 12 million square feet in the 290-acre Century City area, city officials said.

Picus refused to disclose Tuesday what position she will take on the Planning Department proposal.

She is expected to outline her proposed changes when she meets tonight with the group of private citizens she named to advise the professional planners in drafting the specific plan.

The influential Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization is expected to urge Picus to oppose further large-scale growth.

The Planning Department’s version of the specific plan envisions huge new development in Warner Center, once the site of movie mogul Jack Warner’s ranch and now the home of two hotels, a hospital, business parks, office towers and two shopping malls, the Promenade and Topanga Plaza.

But the plan also proposes that developers pay $14,990 for each estimated additional car trip their projects would generate per day. The plan foresees the developers paying $556 million toward the $1.3 billion in roadway improvements needed to support the growth.

One of the key premises of the plan was to build in enough street and transit improvements to prevent--even with the growth--any worsening of traffic congestion in the area, said Jim Dawson, Picus’ planning aide.

The plan specifies a long list of street widenings and the computerization of traffic signals.

The big-ticket items include elevating Victory and Topanga Canyon boulevards, the major arterials through Warner Center. Traffic would pass through on the elevated streets, unhindered by local traffic on ground level, Dawson said.